New Delhi, Sep 4 (PTI) The National Stock Exchange of India Ltd has received regulatory approval for the long-awaited Rs 30,000-crore initial public offering (IPO), which could potentially be the country's biggest-ever yet.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) issued an observation letter, effectively a clearance to the world's largest derivatives exchange to proceed with the IPO, according to an update on the regulator's website on Friday.

The NSE's offering of 14.89 crore shares will compete alongside Jio Platforms Ltd, billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led conglomerate's digital services arm, for the biggest-ever IPO tag. Jio's offering is estimated to be about Rs 37,700 crore but its timing has not yet been announced.

The NSE IPO will surpass Hyundai Motor India's Rs 27,858.75 crore listing in 2024 as well as LIC of India's Rs 20,557.23 crore offering in 2022. It will also dwarf Paytm's (One97 Communications) Rs 18,300 crore (2021), Tata Capital's Rs 15,511.87 crore (2025) and Coal India's Rs 15,200 crore (2010) listing.

The exchange is expected to announce the IPO price band and other key details next week. The public issue is likely to be launched on September 15 with the exchange targeting a listing on September 24-25, sources close to the development said. The listing is targeted before the Pitru Paksha period begins on September 26.

The IPO, which will see light after nearly a decade of regulatory delays, will place NSE among India's 10 most valuable companies by market capitalisation.

NSE, whose listing plan has been held up since 2016 by regulatory scrutiny and legacy legal issues, had filed its draft red herring prospectus with SEBI on June 17.

This week the Supreme Court dismissed SEBI's appeals in the long-running NSE co-location and dark-fibre cases - the governance disputes that had stalled the exchange's listing ambitions for nearly a decade.

NSE dominates the country's equity derivatives market and is the world's busiest derivatives exchange by contracts traded, while also operating the benchmark Nifty 50 index.

The proposed IPO will comprise an offer for sale by existing shareholders, allowing them to monetise their stakes without bringing fresh capital into the exchange.

The offering, structured entirely as an offer for sale of up to 14.89 crore shares - roughly 6 per cent of NSE's paid-up capital - is expected to raise close to Rs 30,000 crore. Bankers tracking the deal expect shares to be priced around Rs 2,000 apiece, in line with where the stock has been trading in the pre-listing grey market, with a formal price band expected to be announced around September 11.

Because the issue is entirely an offer for sale, proceeds will flow to selling shareholders rather than to the exchange itself. NSE filed its draft prospectus with SEBI in June, though the approval timeline slipped after SBI Capital Markets was added to the list of selling shareholders, a change that triggered a fresh 21-day public feedback window on the revised documents.

NSE's path to market has been one of India's longest-running corporate sagas. The exchange first filed for an IPO in December 2016, only to see the process repeatedly derailed by a co-location scandal involving allegations that select brokers were given preferential, low-latency access to its trading systems, along with related governance lapses that drew sustained regulatory scrutiny.

NSE sought SEBI's no-objection certificate - the mandatory clearance market infrastructure institutions must obtain before filing an IPO - multiple times over the years, including attempts in 2019, 2020 and 2024, before finally securing it earlier this year.

A listing would crown a remarkable turnaround for an exchange that, as recently as a decade ago, was mired in litigation and reputational damage.

According to the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP), State Bank of India will offload up to 2.48 crore shares in the IPO, while MS Strategic (Mauritius) Limited will sell 1.60 crore shares.

Notably, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), NSE's single largest shareholder with a 10.72 per cent stake, will not sell any shares in the IPO.

Other key selling shareholders include Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Aranda Investments (Mauritius) Pte Ltd, Bank of Baroda, Stock Holding Corporation of India Ltd, General Insurance Corporation of India, The New India Assurance Company, National Insurance Company and United India Insurance Company.

SBI currently holds a 3.23 per cent stake in NSE, while its subsidiary SBI Capital Markets owns another 4.33 per cent. Stock Holding Corporation of India has a 4.44 per cent stake in the exchange.

While the final issue size and valuation will be determined later, people familiar with the matter said the IPO could be around Rs 30,000 crore, implying a market capitalisation of more than Rs 5 lakh crore. NSE has around 1.8 lakh shareholders.

NSE's IPO filing follows its board's approval of the proposed IPO on February 6, after the exchange received Sebi's no-objection certificate (NOC).

The journey, however, has been a long one. NSE had first filed draft offer documents in 2016 to raise around Rs 10,000 crore through an OFS by existing shareholders. Sebi subsequently withheld approval amid concerns over governance lapses and the co-location case.

Over the years, NSE made multiple representations to Sebi and undertook a series of governance and compliance measures to address the regulator's concerns.

A key hurdle was cleared earlier this year when NSE moved towards settling the long-running co-location and dark fibre matters with Sebi.

In July, NSE paid Rs 714.74 crore to Sebi after receiving the regulator's in-principle approval to settle the two matters for Rs 1,491.21 crore. The latest payment, together with Rs 776.47 crore already deposited by NSE, completed the agreed settlement amount.

Sebi had earlier agreed, in principle, to settle the co-location and dark fibre matters for a cumulative Rs 1,491.21 crore and directed NSE to pay the balance after adjusting the amount already deposited.

NSE had initially filed two settlement applications with Sebi on June 20, 2025, covering the co-location and dark fibre matters for a cumulative Rs 1,387.39 crore. It subsequently revised the settlement terms on March 13, 2026, raising the cumulative amount to Rs 1,491.21 crore.

On the financial front, the exchange reported a 15 per cent decline in profit after tax to Rs 10,302 crore in FY26, compared with Rs 12,188 crore in FY25. Total income also slipped to Rs 18,713 crore in FY26 from Rs 19,177 crore in the previous fiscal.

During the June quarter, NSE reported a 7 per cent rise in its consolidated profit after tax (PAT) to Rs 3,120 crore from Rs Rs 2,924 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal. Its total income increased 9 per cent year-on-year to Rs 5,252 crore in the April-June quarter of FY27 from Rs 4,798 crore a year ago.

A total of 20 merchant bankers are managing the IPO. PTI SP ANZ MR